Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 26 to 50 of 95 results

26. Encounters With Christ VII (Easter): Jesus & Mary Magdalene

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... in the middle of downtown.” It costs two dollars to visit Mark Twain’s home and to walk around the site. Bill Bryson said he found the home to be a disappointment. He expressed his disillusionment like this: “It purported to be a faithful reproduction of the original interiors, but there were wires and water sprinklers clumsily evident in every room. I also very much doubt that young Samuel Clemens’ bedroom had Armstrong vinyl on the floor or that his sister’s bedroom had a plywood partition in it ...

27. Never Read Any of His Books

John 20:1-18

Illustration

James W. Moore

28. Affirmation and Alienation

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

... God; Adam knew that he was naked. Adam and Eve stood naked before God because truth stripped away pretense and arrogance. It is absurd to suggest that God did not want man and woman to learn about sex. If so, God would not have created us for reproduction, nor said to Adam and Eve, "multiply and be fruitful." The problem is the arrogance and disobedience of a person wanting to be equal with God, saying, "I’ll do what I please; you do what you please"; then discovering in the midst of that decision that ...

29. The Shepherd King

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

... , which fulfills the Shepherd Psalm (23) - "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want" - in a new and wonderful manner in Jesus Christ. The real problem with that painting is not that it is not very good art, but that it is only a partial reproduction of the most ancient Christian mosaics that exist in the church of Santa Costanza and virtually every other ancient church. In Santa Costanza, for example, the Christ is seated on a throne, one hand upraised in blessing, and the other holding the Book of the ...

30. The Changes Children Bring

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

... , Bill Cosby asks just one question of those who want to have children: Why? "Why would you have children when all your other acts were rational?" Why would you give up the comfortable patterns of your life for "the joys of frantically coping with reproductions of yourselves?" Think of all the changes children bring. Once, it didn’t matter where you kept things in the house. You could put products like cleaning liquid or razor blades wherever it was most convenient to use them. But when the children come ...

31. Chapter VII

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... , very good, not sordid or bad and belittling. It is good because it serves at least two wonderful purposes. First, of course, it is the act by which procreation takes place. Through the sexual merging of two bodies a third person can be produced, and what a miracle that reproduction is! Just think of it, a male spermatozoa, that looks like a tadpole, and is so small that you need a microscope to see it, swims its way up to meet an ova, or an egg-yoke-like cell, held inside of the woman. When they meet the ...

32. On Loneliness

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... did was to concentrate them all away! He left only himself in the whole world. But after living for one day like this, he found himself even more unhappy, unbearably lonely. So he concentrated everybody back. But this time, they were not individual people, they were all reproductions of himself. He had figured that if everyone were like him, all his problems would be solved. But after living this way for a day, he found that this was even worse. In effect, he could not live with himself. So in the end, he ...

33. Jesus and Andrew

John 1:35-42

Sermon

James W. Moore

... and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office. One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands ...

34. Finding Jesus

John 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... author, Mark Twain. The house was a "trim, white-washed house with green shutters, set incongruously in the middle of downtown." It cost two dollars to walk around the site. Bryson found the house a disappointment. "It purported to be a faithful reproduction of the original interiors," he writes, "but there were wires and water sprinklers clumsily evident in every room. I also very much doubt that young Samuel Clemens’ bedroom had Armstrong vinyl on the floor or that his sister’s bedroom had a plywood ...

35. When Compassion Overcomes Irritation

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... is a combination of contradictory or incongruous thoughts used together.” (The Circuit Rider,” Dec.1987/Jan. 1989 p.4) It is a great dinner topic to have people share their favorite oxymoron. Here are some examples: cruel kindness; authentic reproduction, down escalator, jumbo shrimp, proudly humble, (or humbly proud), pretty ugly, postal service, airline food, military intelligence, United Methodism. Dr. Messer says, “The value of this type of speech is that it jars the reader to new awareness or ...

36. The Road to Somewhere (I am the way, truth, and life)

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... his life was a road to nowhere! The author Bill Bryson, tells of going to Hannibal, Missouri, to visit the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Mark Twain was one of his heroes. As he visited the home, he was disappointed. The home was supposed to be a faithful reproduction of the original, but it was easy to see that it was not. Far too many items from the 20th century were included in the home. In a sense it was false advertising. Mr. Bryson was further disappointed that he was not able to actually go inside the ...

37. The Lord's Prayer: Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... purchase such a picture to hang in our homes. I am told that such pictures are a good investment. I was surprised when I recently attended a showing of post-modern art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and learned that printed reproductions of Van Gogh''s works were available for purchase to put on our office walls. They have very little investment value. As I was writing this sermon, the transitional thought came to me that to invest our lives in anything else except the resurrection faith of ...

38. The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... not of this fold. I must bring them in also. Now here is the question for this morning. What is an oxymoron? An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory terms, seemingly canceling each other out. For example: bittersweet, jumbo-shrimp, authentic-reproduction, University of Memphis Football, House ethics committee. Let me give you another. Good shepherd. Certainly to the modern ear there is nothing contradictory about that, until we learn that in the ancient world shepherding was really not considered the ...

39. Christ Signs The Letter Of The Church

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in reference to Christ. First he talks about Christ being the image of the invisible God. This was Paul's first assertion, verse 15, Christ is "the image of the invisible God". The Greek for "image" is “eikon.” An eikon was a representation, or reproduction with precise likeness. A portrait of a person's likeness or an image of a sovereign or hero on a coin was an eikon. Paul says Jesus Christ was that – a representation of God the Creator - Father. But more. The word eikon means manifestation. More ...

40. Sweet Little Jesus Boy

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... collapsed into his easy chair. The bright colors of a magazine cover in his den caught his eye, and he picked up the periodical and leafed through it while he waited for dinner. It was an issue of The Christmas Annual. There were beautifully illustrated reproductions of Christmas carols. He began to read the familiar word, but being in a caustic mood, he began to revise the carols into parodies: "Silent night, holy night All is calm, all is bright...Maybe so, but I will wager That innkeeper, didn't have ...

41. Holy Living

John 6:51-65

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... the answer one should give to the first. For the cynic, everything is relative and, therefore, the idea of love, honesty, and truth being absolute values is sheer fiction. Moreover, the outward conduct of every cynic cannot help being a direct reproduction of his or her belief. But the new spirit which Jesus brought revolutionized life - it cleansed human attitudes, laid restraints on human conduct, and molded into new patterns the careers of human character. In all those who opened their hearts to ...

42. Hosea's Marriage Troubles

Hosea 2:14-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... of the Canaanites, who were in the land before Israel came into the land. Baal worship was prohibited for Jews, but it flourished nevertheless. The central act of worship at the time of the festivals in all fertility religions was the act of sexual reproduction. So there were temple prostitutes, both male and female, in ancient religions. Gomer may have been one of those temple . I have made a covenant with them, a promise to them, so I will never leave them. So in the incredibly beautiful passage read ...

43. Hands On

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Our five-year-old Soren was looking at an over-sized art book. It has lots of glossy full-page reproductions of artwork that made it a fascinating "read" for a five-year old. But on a two-page layout in a series of Renaissance paintings depicting Jesus' life, Soren found a mystifying addition. "Daddy," she asked, "why does Jesus always have a plate on his head?" Her stubby purple-painted ...

44. What Happened to the Leftovers?

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the bottom of a drained pool, counseling us on how to use all our cutup, no-longer-needed other credit cards. Martha suggests re-tiling the bottom of a swimming pool with them, as she carefully places credit card fragments into an Olympic-pool sized mosaic-reproduction of the Venus de Milo. There is nothing Martha Stewart can't find a second use for. Some of her tips are ridiculous, but she does harken us back to a time when frugal families handed-down, recycled, repaired, and re-heated instead of throwing ...

45. Proper 26

Joshua 3:1-4:24, Matthew 23:1-39, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... into a desert (vv. 33-34) and deserts into pools of water (v. 35). The effects of God's power over water are sketched out in vv. 36-38: Cities develop where none had previously been possible, land becomes fertile, and the divine blessing flourishes through reproduction. Verses 39-42 focus more on the social implications of God's salvific power. Just as God can reverse desert or fertile ground, so also is God able to reverse social hierarchy and oppression (vv. 39-41), and this reality is worthy of praise (v ...

46. God Is Pro-Life

Exodus 20:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence."[2] Dr. Micheline Matthews-Roth, principal Research Associate in the Department of Medicine at Harvard, agrees "It is an accepted fact that the life of any individual organism reproducing by sexual reproduction, begins at conception or fertilization the time when the egg cell, from the female, and the sperm cell, from the male, join to form a new single cell, the zygote."[3] But this commandment not only prohibits the direct killing of ...

47. If You're Not Loving You're Not Living (Fruit of the Spirit: Love)

Galatians 5:22

Sermon

James Merritt

... , "Why do you say that Dad?" His dad said, "Because it's a pear tree." But fruit is also valuable. You see, fruit exists not for its own benefit, but for the benefit of others. Fruit is to be eaten. Did you know that seed in fruit is designed for reproduction. You see, others are not only to taste it, but that same seed is to be planted in the lives of other people. Now understand that this fruit is not produced by us, it is produced in us; by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore this fruit is ...

48. From Father Failure to Divine Father

Romans 8:12-17

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... old story of the minister who said to the gardener, that's a nice garden you and the Lord have there. Yes, said the gardener, but you should have seen it when the Lord had it all by himself! God provides the basic life forces and reproductive miracle, but man shapes, cultivates, and organizes the life. That is true in gardens, in literature, music, art, politics, and religion. The world is a cooperative effort between man and God. Man, in false pride, takes all the credit, or in false humility, takes none ...

49. Looking in All the Wrong Places

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... a kind of "Stand By Your Man" mentality (to quote another female music artist of the era). But World War II and its production demands brought economic independence to thousands of women who entered the workforce. And after that "the Pill" brought reproductive choices to millions more. Yet with those choices also came consequences. To succeed in the work place challenged the relationships of home and family. Even today, most women struggle to find the balance. Some balance their Daytimers in one hand and ...

50. Romans 4:13-25

Romans 4:13-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... just how Abraham became the father of all. Paul alludes to what God had to work with in that first generation in order to begin fulfilling the promise a 99-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman. Yet out of these bodies, which were reproductively dead, God brought forth Isaac, a new life. In verse 18 Paul finally adds the new dimension to his justification/faith/grace formula. The new addition is "hope." Out of Abraham's faith came a hope that could face down a "no hope" situation. The facts confronting ...

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